3 Reasons Why We Still Need IDAHOBIT
By Alex Charilaou
May 17th is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia – it celebrates the same day in 1990, when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Today, we stand together as the LGBTQ+ community and its allies against discrimination, bigotry and division.
Despite the advances made by the LGBTQ+ community in the last few decades, there is still a need for IDAHOBIT in 2021. Here’s 3 reasons why.
- Violent crime against LGBTQ+ people in the UK and US is increasing. Devastating research coming out from both countries shows that violent crime towards the LGBTQ+ community has not diminished in the last couple of years. In the UK, Galop found that 1 in 4 trans or gender non-conforming people in the UK had experienced physical violence, while research by the BBC found that homophobic and biphobic hate crime cases had trebled from 2014 to 2020. Meanwhile, US charity Human Rights Campaign found that 2021 was the worst year on record for anti-trans violence, with 29 transgender people killed in the first half of the year alone. This deeply worrying trend exposes the need for IDAHOBIT in the UK and US.
- There is an increasingly bleak picture for the LGBTQ+ community internationally. As this report by Human Rights Watch attests, there are many parts of the world where LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms are being diminished, and LGBTQphobia is increasingly emboldened. Right-wing, authoritarian governments in Brazil, Poland and Hungary among others have reduced LGBTQ+ individuals’ access to public services and healthcare, while numerous reactionary backlashes have led to an increase in LGBTQ+ hate crimes across the world. These statistics elucidate the need for an internationalist solidarity between LGBTQ+ individuals and allies across borders.
- Outcomes for LGBTQ+ people of colour, disabled people and communities of faith, among others, are poorer. As research by Stonewall has found, minority groups within the LGBTQ+ community face greater obstacles. Shockingly, half of BAME people in the community surveyed reported experiencing ethnic discrimination in their local LGBTQ+ community, a figure which rises to 60% for black people. Similarly, a quarter of disabled LGBTQ+ individuals faced discrimination in their communities. Moreover, health outcomes, economic outcomes and safety from violence decreases when you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community from another minority group. This research emphasises the need for an intersectional IDAHOBIT, and for us all in the LGBTQ+ to reach across minority barriers with our solidarity.
3 Things You Can Do To Support The LGBTQ+ Community
- Learn more about IDAHOBIT and the difficulties faced by the LGBTQ+ community.
- Join the Staff LGBTQ+ Network
- Work together with the LGBTQ+ community to make change; politically, culturally and legally – we’ve already come so far, but together, we can go even further.
Stand up to oppression and bigotry this IDAHOBIT!
